The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, is standing steadfast behind an interim order it made last month allowing around 570 individuals and their families to return to the N12 informal settlement near Cloverdene in Benoni.
Judge Stuart Wilson dismissed an application by the City of Ekurhuleni to appeal the interim order. The judge made it clear that the people are allowed to return to the site for now, until the court has finally ruled on the matter.
The judge last month interdicted and restrained the municipality from demolishing any structure erected at the settlement until the final determination of the matter.
Judge Wilson earlier ordered the Ekurhuleni Municipality to erect temporary structures that will house the occupiers while their application for final relief is heard. While not barging on his interim order, the judge did say that his deadline for the municipality to complete the rebuilding of the structures could be varied if the municipality could not meet the deadline.
He also directed the municipality, the mayor, and the city manager to report back to him this week on the progress they have made in implementing his order.
Judge Wilson undertook to oversee the implementation of the interim relief himself.
In its attempt to appeal the order, the municipality now accepted that illegal evictions took place when it undertook an operation in May this year to destroy the informal structures erected on the property.
Judge Wilson frowned upon this concession, while the municipality objected to his decision to afford relief to the specific occupiers named in the application.
He noted that the contention seems to have been that there was insufficient evidence before the court to conclude that the occupiers were living on the property immediately before the admittedly illegal evictions were carried out.
“I reject that contention. The question was always whether it had been established on a prima facie (on the face of it) basis that the occupiers were illegally evicted from the property,” he said.
He pointed to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), which had compiled a list containing each of the occupiers’ names, identity numbers, and the stand numbers describing the plots that they occupied at the property immediately before the illegal evictions.
“While the list was not placed under oath by each of the occupiers, the SAHRC confirmed, under oath, that it had compiled the list. This was plainly more than enough to establish the occupiers’ prima facie rights to be restored to the property,” the judge said.
While the municipality argued that the earlier order gave the occupiers a right to occupy the property, Judge Wilson remarked, “It does no such thing”.
He said the issue between the parties is whether the occupiers were evicted without a court order in circumstances where a court order was required.
He explained that if the court finally decided at a later stage that the evictions without an order were justified, the interim order would fall away and the occupiers would leave.
The SAHRC turned to court in June to seek redress for the occupiers after security companies employed by the municipality demolished their shacks. Many lost everything, including their documentation.
Several of the homeless submitted affidavits to the court explaining their hardships, which included sleeping out in the open. One of these people is Jane Mmabatho, whose home was destroyed with furniture and documents inside, leaving her and 11 others, including six grandchildren, homeless.
Zelda Venter
iol.co.za
